Growing Tomatoes Tips and Tricks

In this article, let’s us discuss about ” Growing Tomatoes” and It’s benefits.

Growing tomatoes is quite simple, but we need to know several operations in order to obtain satisfying results.

Growing Tomatoes – To grow tomatoes from seeds, let’s follow these steps:

• Let’s arrange a seedbed, in the case young plants will be transplanted both into an open field (recommended), and in pots.
• Let’s sow one tomato seed for every two centimetres ( 0.787402 inches ) . If we live in a cold area, it is suggested to arrange a seedbed in an indoor – but sunny – area (if we sow in winter); then, in spring, plants can be placed outside. Otherwise it is better to begin sowing when the weather gets hotter.
• Sowing in a seedbed helps to easily select the strongest plants, removing the weakest ones.
• When plants are big enough and atmospheric conditions are hot enough, we can start to transplant our tomatoes in their definitive location, which should be a highly sunny place.

Growing Tomatoes – To grow tomatoes from cuttings let’s follow these steps:

• Let’s obtain cuttings we need from plants already growth by us, or by some friend. To perform this operation we need to cut laterals, i.e. the smaller branches that grow in between the stem and main branches of the plant. Moreover their removal is useful to obtain a quicker ripening and bigger tomatoes.
• Once collected the needed amount of cuttings, chopping them off from the base, they should be put in a pot filled with water for at least one week, until they develop the first roots.
• Then they can be transplanted in pots or open fields.

Obviously it is possible to buy already big tomato plants in a nursery and then simple transplant them in the chosen location. Anyway, the transplant in the open air – in any case – should be performed only when plants reach an height of about 15 cm ( 6 inches ) , leaving about 40-50 centimetres ( 15-20 inches ) between them.

Growing Cherry Tomatoes.

Tomatoes are not so demanding about the kind of soil ( the important thing is just to avoid water stagnation ) , but it is quite exacting about fertilization and soil preparation. Talking about intercropping, tomatoes seem to particularly help celery growth, as well as parsley and basil. Instead, if sown next to cabbages they help to keep the dangerous cabbage white butterfly away.

Growing Tomatoes – If we want to boost tomato plants energy and health, we could plant marigold flowers at their feet to keep nematodes and roundworms away; these little animals feed themselves with tomatoes roots and thus are able to kill the plants. Additionally we can sow nettles near tomatoes; in fact this plant contributes to reduce fungal attacks, increasing – at the same time – tomatoes preservability. Other appreciated plants to sow near tomatoes are: spinach, turnip, leek, salad, garlic, green beans and mint. We need to absolutely keep away from tomatoes the following plants: potato, cucumber and fennel.

Tomato Seeds.

Tomato is a vegetable that during its growth could need a little help, so if we, for instance, notice its leaves start to fall or turn yellow, we can add to the soil complete and balanced organic manure and to the plant

Growing Tomatoes in Pots.

Growing Tomatoes – Mulching: Which should preferably be performed using natural materials and not plastic ones – turns out to be very useful after the transplant to keep soil temperature regular and to help keeping a proper moistness. Moreover mulching helps to avoid “weeds”, if we want to keep them away from our field; yet it should not be performed in an early stage, to not risk to keeping soil temperature too low.

Growing Tomatoes – Varieties: Cordon (also called indeterminate) varieties, usually the tallest ones, need some support; thus we have to put a stake, that should be a cane or a little pole, into the soil near the plant’s foot. With a soft thread we need to tie the stake to the plant, carefully avoiding tightening too much; as soon as the plant grows we need to repeat the operation. The determinate (also called bush) varieties don’t need a support, although many farmers often perform the above operations with these varieties too.

Growing Tomatoes – Harvesting: Tomatoes can be harvested as soon as they are ripe gently picking them from the plant, paying attention to not harm the plant: we can take each individual tomato in our hand palm, rotating it until it comes off. Instead cluster varieties can be already harvested when one of the tomatoes in the cluster starts to turn red; at this point we can cut the whole cluster at the base, using some scissors. Then we need to hang the clusters harvested, putting them in a cool and dry place where slowly they can keep on ripening. This way we can preserve fresh delicious tomatoes for many months.

Growing Tomatoes – Tomato Properties and Benefits:

Tomato, vegetable of infinite properties, is the fruit of the nightshade Solanum lycopersicum, an herbaceous annual plant belonging to Solanaceae family, Tubiflorae order. South America native, by now tomato is grown almost everywhere for a long period of time and it is on the market with many different horticultural varieties. After potato, it is the most grown vegetable on Earth. Tomato can be eaten raw, dried or cooked, but unlike many other vegetables, it enhances its beneficial properties once cooked.

So let’s discover together the main properties of this delicious vegetable!

– Whoever follows a diet with caloric restriction usually can eat tomatoes without any worry, since 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of fresh tomatoes contain just 18 calories. Even better, they seem to help organism to lose weight; this happens because tomatoes are able to stimulate the production of the Carnitine aminoacid, used by organism to transform lipids to energy.

– The habit to eat tomatoes regularly is connected to a 30% decreased risk of heart diseases. Tomatoes – on condition that they come from biological agriculture – is considered a sheer natural medicine suitable to prevent cardiac diseases, but not only.

– Tomatoes are rich in C vitamin, a fundamental element for the proper functioning of our immune system that our organism should eat daily in order to protect itself from several diseases. World Health Organization (WHO) suggests C vitamin quantity to eat daily for an adult, on average, should be of 45 mg (0.0015 ounces). 100 gr (3.5 ounces) of mature tomatoes contain about 25 mg of it, while 100 grams of tomato paste contain about 43 mg of this vitamin.

– Tomatoes also contain lycopene, which has a strong antioxidant power and is consider an element highly protective for our organism, especially regarding degenerative diseases connected to aging process. Lycopene protects us from genetic damages and their resulting diseases. Lycopene contained in tomatoes is about 11 mg (0.0004 ounces) per 100 g in the pulp and 54 mg (0.002 ounces) per 100 g in the peel.

– Fundamental nutrients contained in tomatoes, included the above-mentioned Lycopene, confer them proven preventive properties towards cancer, mainly towards the ones that affect colon and prostate.

-Tomatoes are considered foods able to help organism to keep cholesterol levels in the blood under control. Their consumption is thus considered very well for whoever has this need.

-Tomatoes are beneficial for sight and eyes, which can be protected from degenerative diseases thanks to high levels of beta-carotene and lutein contained in this food.

-Tomatoes help the proper functioning of intestine thanks to their high contents of vegetable fibres – as hemicellulose and cellulose – which are particularly present in their peel. For this reason eating tomatoes is often recommended to whoever suffers of constipation and sluggish bowel.

• Thanks to their high contents of water, tomatoes are able to stimulate diuresis, above all if it is eaten fresh or raw, with no salt added.

Moreover tomatoes can be used for purposes different from eating them: in fact, crossing the narrow confines of kitchens and cookers, there are many other alternative ways to use them.

• Tomato juice feeds and moisturizes skin, being very beneficial to whoever has a dry dermal tissue. Whisking a tomato and then adding a couple of olive oil tablespoons, we can obtain a mixture which, applied on skin for about 15 minutes, will be definitely more effective than the most expensive facial cream.
• Rubbing a half tomato on hands like a bar of soap skin can become more elastic.
• Tomatoes can be beneficial too hair too: in fact they are able to relieve itching and moisturize dry and brittle hair.

– Over physical wellness, tomatoes can be very useful in house cleaning too. Since they are excellent antilimestone, to clean bathroom or kitchen it is enough to put mature tomato pieces where needed and let them act for about an hour, before rinsing with a damp sponge.

– Tomato leaves are far better than the most expensive mosquito tablets: in fact, putting them in special glass containers, they are able to keep mosquitoes (as well as many other insects) away. Furthermore leaves are very useful to soothe stings and consequent infections caused by insects.

• Tomatoes can be used even on metals: for example, gently rubbing their mature pulp on brass objects – after wiping them with a woollen cloth – will make these objects shine like gold!.